


Moloch

by TheSpaceCoyote



Series: Sanzaru [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Experimentation, M/M, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-01-20
Updated: 2012-01-21
Packaged: 2017-10-29 20:13:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/323712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSpaceCoyote/pseuds/TheSpaceCoyote
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chronicles the time that two young boys, Dave and John, spend in an experimental research facility, and how they eke out their survival. Longfic prequel to Sanzaru.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness

**Author's Note:**

> A'ight, so this is going to be a longer fic that explains the background set out in the first fic of this AU, found here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/321425
> 
> More characters may be added as time goes on, but this is going to remain DaveJohn regardless of those developments. Because I love them. Clearly I love them enough to hurt them like this, ahahaha.
> 
> The rating for this may go up, and while the gore and stuff for this chapter isn't too bad, there's going to be more later on so just...be prepared for that.

 

When John first arrives at the facility, he thinks it's a game.

Well, not entirely. He can tell that this is bad news, that this is serious, that the guys in the neon hazmat suits aren't just screwing around when they strip him naked and spray him down before throwing a pair of thin grey pants at him and shoving him down a long hallway and into a cell. He knows that he won't be going home soon, that he won't see his dad, or sleep in his bed, or watch his favorite movies or eat cake for a long, long time. 

He knows that this is for real, and yet he just can't help his doofy and mischievous nature, making off-handed and snarky comments about both the thickset guards gripping his upper arms and the dreary, dank surroundings. Once a jokester always a jokester. His dad would be proud of him.

He frowns, and his light mood falters a bit at that. He tries not to think of his dad too much.

The guards tug him along, his feet stumbling over the faded-blue concrete that forms a strip of hallway between two walls of close, blocky cells. Once they pass by too close and something with gray skin and green eyes hisses at him and claws out from behind the bars. John tries to twist his head around and get a closer look at the what is in the other cells, but is quickly rushed to his own and thrown inside. 

John meets Dave right off the bat, as he tumbles into him the moment the guards fling him in and click the lock shut. They share the same unusually spacious cell, which John assumes is because of Dave's wings. Yup-- _wings_ , wings that John constantly loves to touch and gape at, though he is careful of the area where the mess of feathers and flesh join to Dave's shoulder blades, after an curious touch results in a pained squawk and a string of curses from the other boy. The skin there is puckered by stitches and crusted with blood and pus, and only there does the joining of bird and man look absolutely wrong and _sick_. This is the first jolt that makes John start realizing the enormity of the situation, that this is for real, that Dave is no tragically dramatic movie monster made of makeup and fake feathers--though he still couldn't fathom that it could _ever_ happen to him. 

Despite seeing what had been done to Dave, and catching glimpses of the other facility inhabitants through the shadowy bars of the cages, John still hangs on to his optimism that no matter how badly these other _kids_ have been hurt and altered it can't possibly happen to him. Nope. Never. 

Because John Egbert had grown up on a rich diet of movies and stories where the underdog _always_ wins. Because John Egbert knows he is destined to be the _hero,_ here--heck, he is already devising a plan on how him and Dave were going to escape the facility. This is his challenge, his own unconventional coming of age story. He has the idea in his head that it will be like in the movies, that he will engineer an awesome and intricate plot and incite all of the subjects to rise up against the bad guys, and there John Egbert will be, leading the charge, sporting a dashing man-mullet and a charming prison-grown stubble that will charm all the sexy lady mutants. John entertains these fantasies as he lays on the floor of the cage, Dave picking and preening at his hair in the weird birdie way he tends to do when he is bored and John is still enough and doesn't squirm every time Dave's uncut nails scratch at his scalp. John folds his hands over his stomach and tells Dave about his plans; that one day Dave's wings will be strong enough to fly, and then when the guy in white comes along to feed them or administer more drugs he will hop on Dave's back shouting " _Freeeeeddoooooooooooooom"_ (complete with magically appearifying face makeup, obviously)before flying out over the heads of the guards and letting everyone else out of the cages. John babbles on about how they will break out that one girl with the extra arms grafted to her sides who shouts slurs at the guards, and the two with artificial gills affixed to their necks who live in the ethereal blue tank on the far side of the hallway, and heck maybe even the weird guy with orange horns implanted on his ears who has no sense of volume control. And as John shivers from the cold of the cell floor and curls up close to Dave he continues to talk, fingers still deft from years of playing piano working into the sore muscle of Dave's wings. He tells Dave not to worry, because they're going to make it, they're going to lead the army of the downtrodden, underdog mutants and they're going to _win_. 

 

He tells Dave not to worry, because he's going to be the hero. 


	2. through the negro streets at dawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Essentially the first chapter, but told from Dave's point of view.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No major warnings here, just most of the same stuff from last time.

Dave has been in the facility for a long, long time. Not as long as some of the other kids, but long enough that he starts to lose those last lingering shreds of resistance and fight that he had carried with him--ever since he had been smacked over the head from behind while walking home and woken up up a chilling spray of water on his naked body, ever since being dragged down the blue mile and thrown into the cell, since that he was strapped facedown on the table for hours, sedating needles being pumped into his arms as they grafted the thick feathered appendages to his shoulders. 

He had retained his fight and drive for so long, but eventually the thick weight of the wings on his back weighed him down and he wallows, feathers dragging on the floor, restrained from their purpose to grant flight by the confinements of the cell. 

So when John arrives, it's like a breath of fresh air, a hole carved into the side of Dave's cage that enables him to see the sky.

John is initially a bit tentative, a bit wary around you despite his obvious interest and fascination with your wings and just _you_ , in general. 

After the first bit of trial and error, John learns how to tread carefully around Dave, where to touch and where not to touch, what to say and not to say. John seems to notice the way Dave stiffens at the mention of his Dad's harlequins, and shies away from that subject with further questioning. Dave is all right with that, because it would be too weird--yes, too weird for a derpy kid and one mutated birdboy cooped up in a den with a bunch of other circus freaks.

John soon learns not to touch the tender area around Dave's shoulders, where his wings are, but he learns the other places that Dave _likes_ to be touched. Dave tilts his head up whenever John's fingers grace over his jawbone so that he can scratch and stroke gently under the other boys chin. A shudder goes through his body at John's soft touches, and if he had feathers anywhere other than on his wings they would have ruffled with delight. 

Neither one of them questions the need for physical contact and support that overrides all previous human judgements of gender and sexuality. John knows that it's Dave or no one and Dave knows that it's John or no one, so they both decided to be Dave and John and not be lonely. 

They're all that they've got, all the interaction they have outside of the scant moments of play out in the recreation "yard" with some of the other subjects, though all those who retain most of their humanity. Dave tells John about the time one of the "alpha" subjects, the crown jewels of the facilities production, accidentally escaped into the yard. It isn't pretty and the image makes John shiver in fear. 

They keep each other sane despite the calls and caws and yowls and screams of the other subjects around them, despite the pervading silence that descends at night. 

Dave wonders how John does it, how he keeps himself cheery and happy despite the very clear danger of their situation, despite the very tiny hope for escape and freedom. His optimism is pretty damn infectious, Dave has to admit, and for the first time in a long, long while Dave finds himself imagining a plan of escape. He talks with John about life on the outside, about his Bro and his music and how he had a pair of shades before the facility drones pounced on him and how he wonders what ever happened to them. And John in turn tells him about his Dad, how his Dad makes the best cakes in _the whole wide, universe, Dave_ , how his Dad gives the best hugs, and used to always tuck him in and get him a glass of water, and Dave _snorts_ as a remnant of his old coolkid demeanor but admits to John that that sounds _nice_. And John smiles and wraps his arms about Dave's neck, telling him that _someday_ they'll get out, he promises, just _trust me Dave, I'll get you out of here_. 

 

And for the first time in years Dave Strider believes in someone. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments and kudos I've gotten so far, you guys are the only reason I keep this up. Hope you enjoyed this chapter :)


End file.
